Asus on
Sunday started shipping its Transformer
Pad 300 tablet in the U.S., with the company pitching the tablet as a gaming
device and laptop replacement. The tablet has a 10.1-inch screen, Google's
Android 4.0 operating system and a quad-core Tegra 3 processor from Nvidia
running at a clock speed of 1.2GHz. The tablet is priced started at US$379.99
for 32GB of storage and 1GB of RAM. Though most features are similar to those
available in its predecessor, the Eee
Pad Transformer Prime, the
starting price is lower. Among the new features are GPS capabilities and the
new OS is pre-installed. The company did not immediately comment on worldwide
availability. The tablet is the first that does not have Asus' famous
"Eee" moniker, which debuted in 2007 with the pioneering Eee PC 700
netbook. Asus is upgrading its tablets at a furious pace, and the new tablet
comes just six months after it shipped the Transformer Prime, which was the
industry's first quad-core tablet. Asus also joins a bevy of companies pricing
Android 4.0 tablets under US$400. Samsung's Galaxy Tab 2 10.1-inch tablet will
ship on May 13 and starts at $399.99. The aggressive pricing strategy of
Android tablets may be an attempt to take market share from Apple, which is expected
to dominate the tablet market this year, according to Gartner. Apple's iPad
is priced starting at $499. The Transformer Pad 300's 10-hour battery life can
be extended to 15 hours with an additional battery in the optional $149
keyboard dock. The dock has a full keyboard and a touch pad to make the tablet
a functional laptop.
The dock has Android-specific buttons for quick access to
tablet functions, and also USB 2.0 and SD card slots. The tablet weighs 635
grams (1.4 pounds), according to Asus. The display shows images at a resolution
of 1280 by 800 pixels, and the Tegra 3 chip enables a strong gaming experience
with 12 integrated graphics cores. The 8-megapixel rear camera on the tablet
can shoot video at 30 frames per second. There is also a 1.2-megapixel camera
on the front of the tablet. A micro-HDMI port allows the tablet to be connected
to TVs. For expandable storage, the tablet has a microSD card slot. The
Transformer Pad 300 has been
advertised with 4G LTE, but this tablet
does include mobile broadband connectivity features. Asus is also bulking up
its cloud offering with the tablet, offering 8GB of free storage on it Asus
WebStorage service. The WebStorage service allows users to share files and
backup data to PCs. Software on the tablet includes Polaris Office, which makes
it easier for users to see Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. An application
called App Backup can save data to local or removable microSD storage.
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